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Spanish Judge Cites Use of Secure Email As a Potential Terrorist Indicator
An anonymous reader writes Is it possible that using secure email services can be construed as an indicator of being a terrorist? Although it's a ridiculous notion that using secure email implies criminal activities, a judge cited that reason to partially justify arrests in Spain. In December, as part of "an anti-terrorist initiative" Operation Pandora, over 400 cops raided 14 houses and social centers in Spain. They seized computers, books, and leaflets and arrested 11 people. Four were released under surveillance, but seven were "accused of undefined terrorism" and held in a Madrid prison. This led to "tens of thousands" participating in protests. As terrorism is alleged "without specifying concrete criminal acts," the attorney for those seven "anarchists" denounced the lack of transparency.
Our economic colonisator pushes us continuously in directions our real leaders don't want to. Even my own government is a bunch of puppets nowadays, controlled by money and fear.
Since governments tap and read everything; if they can't read it, according to them you must be hiding something.
If you are hiding something, you don't trust the government.
If you don't trust the government, you must be a terrorist.
Other people have nothing to hide in their eyes.
Will all potentially dangerous terrorists use secure mail: Yes, thanks to Snowden, they know that unsecured electronic communication will get them identified.
Do other people use secure mail: Yes, some of us have our reasons.
Do most people use secure mail: No. Most people don't care enough.
Does using secure mail automatically make one a terrorist in the eyes of a spanish judge: No, but it does let him quickly winnow out those who might need another look.
Is this a bullshit story: Yup, click-bait right up there with Timothy's usual confusion of correlation & causation.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
While we're at it, whispering is also highly suspicious and should be illegal.
...because we do provide secure (as encrypted in the transport, network and the storage layer) . Spanish judges. You have to love them how people that know the law know few things about technology.
Speaking as a European taxpayer seeing how the US saves and protects countries all over the world, I can cheerfully say that no matter how bad it gets, we can always rely on the US to meddle and make it worse.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I have no idea who you are or what you said. Sorry.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Oh you are one of those thinking that USA won the war alone? Without any help from these awful russian communists for example. I rather believe that the Russians won that one... But again. USA won clearly the battle of propaganda.
Among characteristics of captured terrorists, what are things that they had in common? Gosh, one of those is use of encryption. You think it's a coincidence that encryption is regarded as a weapon?
"it's a ridiculous notion that using secure email implies criminal activities"
Yes, true. However, criminal activities are frequently found using encryption. How can I explain this...hmm. OK, you know how Millenials consider you automatically suspicious unless they can look you up on facebook or linkedin? Yeah, it's like that. You might be a great person, but having this characteristic is associated with reprehensibility of some kind.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Great, now they'll outlaw spam...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Our economic colonisator pushes us continuously in directions our real leaders don't want to. Even my own government is a bunch of puppets nowadays, controlled by money and fear.
it's that, and that current spanish government is actually a bunch of far right (mostly ultracatholic) fanatics. the judicial system is pretty full with those anyway since franco times. not that there are no "reasonable" judges, there are, but rarely in influential positions and they get promptly bullied out of the system if they irritate the bosses.
Aren't you Europeans always laughing at Americans because they think 80 years is a long time?
we are not insensitive clods. the fact that the average american doesn't live up to 80 years despite living in the land of plenty is just sad. we would never laugh at that!
FTA:
According to the prosecutor, the evidence against them includes finding numerous copies of a book called “Against Democracy”...
By the Spanish judge's logic, closing the curtains in your house and owning a copy of Mein Kampf would also cause him to view you as a potential Nazi.
Perhaps those who control the police are the only ones who are allowed to be "against democracy"...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Is it possible that using secure email services can be construed as an indicator of being a terrorist?
When the question is posed like that, no. But it has been taken out of a context, and it is similar to saying 'is carrying a crowbar really a sign that you are going to burgle a house?' - you may be on the way home from the shop, intending to break some timber apart. On the other hand, if it is about 2AM and you are in a residential area far from your home, friends or family, and you can't offer a plausible explanation - perhaps it is reasonable to suspect that you are a burglar.
Terrorists look just like everybody else, at least until they blow themselves up or start shooting at the defenceless, so we have to use a complex set of indicators to try to guess who is likely to be plotting attacks; unfortunately they don't all use emails on 'terror.org' or whatever. If a number of factors come together, then perhaps using strongly encrypted email is worrying - you may have something legitimate to hide, but most people don't bother with encryption if they are just writing to their mum.
"It didn't lobby the Spanish government to actually do anything"
Well, you are wrong. USA *do* lobby Spanish government: at the very least, the Monsanto, copyright, "free" commerce... cases are fully documented.
"A bad deficiency we still are having is that the mail traffic between mail exchange servers is typically unencrypted."
No, it is not a deficiency but a feature as it highlights that anything but end-to-end encryption is pure rubish (and end-to-end encryption is not so perfect considering that at least one of the two ends can be already pwned).
They're just trying to keep up with the US.
Every time there is some little incident of terrorism the public starts soiling their panties and begging politicians to do something. Frankly I find it disgusting.
Except that this raid occurred on 12/17/14, several weeks before the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
True, but it was certainly not out of the good of their heart because we're such lovely fellows. What the US tried (successfully) to prevent was to give Stalin an ice-free harbor. That's basically what the wars that followed were all about.
Russia lacks one thing a superpower needs if it wants to go to war: A harbor to resupply and repair at that can be used all year long and that cannot be easily rendered useless by its enemy. Russia, in all its size, does not have that. Up around Finland? Nope, frozen shut in Winter. Same for Kamchatka and the Wladiwostok area. Black sea? Well, doesn't freeze but it's plugged shut by Turkey at the Bosporus.
Korea, Vietnam, some claim even Afghanistan was such a "harbor war" (though I really have a hard time seeing that last one), you can see their desperate attempts to get a harbor they could use. Korea started out great, but without South Korea it's not a sure bet with SKor being able to maintain vigilance over everything coming from the western coast and Japan pretty much plugging the East. Vietnam worked out great, until those damn Chinks didn't wanna play along anymore.
So please, the US kept Stalin from taking all of Europe. Yes. But certainly not 'cause they were such awesome guys and wanted to do something nice.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Let's look at this logically. You are either right or you are wrong.
Assume you are right: Blaming the US is incredibly dumb tactics because the only people who will care about this are Spaniards who can't vote in US elections. The person you should be blaming is the Prime Minister of Spain, who could fix it tomorrow. You could conceivably blame both, and get increased leverage from associating him with American meddling, but your original post did not even mention the PM's name or party. As is posts like this one are a very good justification for not voting, which allows the Spanish elite to continue to arrest people partly because they use secured electronic devices.
Assume you are wrong: complaining about the US is a waste of time. The government that tolerates this shit can survive any attempt you level that it's doing Obama's bidding because it isn't doing Obama's bidding. The Spanish political elite will continue to oppress you.
Either way, instead of advancing your cause and providing an interesting point-of-view for debate, what you've actually done is allow yourself to be marginalized.